At City Legal, be assured, our specialist immigration consultants dealing with your case are trained to provide highly professional service & solve complex immigration issues. We don’t just facilitate Immigration; we create opportunities & believe in innovative immigration. Our team continue to explore ways to efficiently handle your cases and reduce your stress in making a successful Immigration application or appeal.

UK Spouse Visa

For Spouses & Civil Partners of British Citizens and Settled Migrants

UK Spouse Visa

The Spouse or Civil Partner visa category is for partners of British citizens or persons with Permanent residency in the UK, who wish to join, or stay with their husband, wife or civil partner in the UK. You can also apply if your partner is outside the UK, but intending to return to the UK with you.

Eligibility requirements for a Spouse or Civil Partner visa

In order to qualify for a Spouse or Civil Partner visa you will need to satisfy UK Visas and Immigration that:

Your partner is British or holds Indefinite Leave to Remain;

You are both over the age of 18;

You have met in person and are legally married or in a civil partnership;

Your relationship is genuine and you intend to live together permanently;

Any previous relationships have broken down permanently;

You will be adequately maintained in the UK without recourse to public funds;

There is adequate accommodation for you and any dependents;

You speak and understand English to the required level.

In order to demonstrate that you can be adequately maintained in the UK without recourse to public funds, you will need to satisfy a financial requirement.

You will need to demonstrate that your Spouse or Civil Partner (or both of you jointly if you are in the UK with valid leave to remain) has a gross annual income of at least:

£18,600; plus

£3,800 for a first child (who is not British, settled or an EEA national); plus

£2,400 for each additional child (who is not British, settled or an EEA national).

You can meet this requirement through salaried and non-salaried income, self-employed income, salary and/or dividends from a company of which you are a Director, property rental income, dividends and income from investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds, pension income, insurance payments, maintenance payments and cash savings above £16,000 that have been held for at least six months, unless you can demonstrate that they have come from a specified source.

In some circumstances it is possible to rely on a combination of the above sources of income to satisfy the financial requirement. Different considerations will apply if your Spouse or Civil Partner is in receipt of certain benefits. If your application for entry clearance as a Spouse or Civil Partner is successful, your Spouse or Civil Partner visa will be valid for 33 months initially. If you apply for leave to remain in the UK as a Spouse or Civil Partner then you will be granted leave valid for 30 months.

Before your initial grant of leave expires, you will need to apply to UK Visas and Immigration to extend your stay. After spending 5 years in the UK as the Spouse or Civil Partner of a British citizen or settled person, you will be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

Spouse and Civil Partner visa holders have a full right to work and study in the UK. If you are not able to satisfy certain of the requirements for a Spouse or Civil Partner visa, you may still be able to apply to join or remain with your partner on Human Rights grounds if you can demonstrate that there would be very significant difficulties in your relationship continuing outside the UK.

Following a high profile Supreme Court decision in 2017, the Home Office has changed the immigration rules to allow caseworkers to consider, in specific circumstances, any third-party funding when examining whether the minimum income threshold has been met. Spouse visa refusals are unfortunately very common and normally owing to poorly prepared applications. If you are unsure whether your financial circumstances will meet the required income requirements or not, please speak to one of our experienced advisers.

Please get in touch with one of our experienced immigration lawyers for assistance on your Spouse Visa application on 0330 058 3929.

Client Success Stories

Our client believed that they never met the income requirements on the basis of being employed & self employed and on detailed assessment; we have managed to work out the self employed income by being the director of the company and combined that with employment income during the same financial year as that of the company's. As the employment was ongoing, we managed to combine the income to meet the financial requirements.

Accreditations

We use cookies to create the most secure and effective website to make sure you get the best experience on our website. You may continue to use this site as normal if you are happy with this and by doing this you're agreeing to receive all cookies on this website or you can manage cookies in your browser settings. View Our Cookies Policy